Recruitment and SMEs - The Who, Where and How

Author
Mark Bevans
Founder & Managing Director | We Love 9am
17th March 2015

How can your SME attract, recruit and retain happy, quality staff? 

Times change, powers shift and trends dictate, leaving behind a string of confused, overwhelmed employers just trying to stay in the game. It’s just as daunting as it is exciting. Talent is everywhere and these potential candidates are pushing their prospective employers to deliver better candidate experiences, company cultures and job possibilities. That’s a lot to put on the plates of these already stretched organisations.

With new recruiting tips and techniques coming at you from all angles, it can be tough to know which advice to take and paths to explore. Good recruitment takes good planning. It requires employers and organisations to look at what they have to offer, their goals and their needs and project that out there towards the talent. And when the right opportunity meets the right talent, magic happens!

As a SME, how can you approach recruitment and find that magic? Where do you look, how do you create an experience and what does it take to keep your employees happy? Instead of delving into tools and tricks, let’s look to what quality recruitment is really all about - good principals and good practice.

Recruitment & SMEs - A match made in heaven?

SMEs are in both a tricky and tremendous position recruitment-wise. It can be super tricky for smaller, less resource-heavy companies to pit themselves against the big dogs. With bigger organisations comes bigger recruitment budgets, more exposure and greater talent pulling power. However, there’s more to finding great talent than expensive ads and expansive teams. And that’s where SMEs can swoop in and show those big guys who is boss.

The Big Three - The Who, Where & How.

These three components don’t just dictate how to start on your recruitment journey, they also keep it on track and in full flourish. Too many organisations go straight in with the branding, spreading themselves all around without any strategy or clue as to who they’d like to employ.

Finding the right candidate for your organisation is about assessing how you recruit and what / who you hope to gain.

Who - When it comes to who, there’s two areas to focus on; who am I and who should I hire?

Where - Gone are the days when an ad in the local paper brought candidates to your door. Modern recruitment has demanded organisations up their game and be savvy and on par with the candidates they’re looking to recruit. Aside from the great outreach and engagement opportunities that this new shift offers organisations, there’s one fantastic benefit - you can live, work and engage on the very same networks and online spaces your dream talent live on. The playing field has been leveled and SMEs have a greater chance of finding and researching their potential new hires.

How - Your recruitment approach should be just that - yours. The best recruitment strategies are composed of tried and tested solid best practice techniques and unique approaches that align with your organisation’s needs and goals.

Recruitment can be a massively flexible and personalised endeavour now. Today’s resources can empower SMEs to take over their recruitment experience, offering employees-to-be an exciting, fun journey. Yep, recruitment spans a tonne of spectrums, practices and tools.

Recruiting can be a time consuming, competitive exercise if you don’t give it the care and attention it merits. You get out what you put in - the more planning, researching, brand soul searching and employee outlining you do, the better your chance is of finding the best employees for you. And remember it’s not just about finding talent, you have to keep them too. These Who, Where and How studies showcase just how important it is to get your foundations in place before you dive into the talent pool. And this is only just the beginning…

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